Well, I'm not a professional, but I'd say you have a very nice looking portfolio! You seem to demonstrate an ability to work up concepts and illustrations through rough to detailed shape, value and color exploration, and map your thought process. Again, I can't say for sure, but I have heard that these are very attractive components for employers to see in a portfolio.

You've got a lot of good work here Nick. If you want specific crits on each piece you can post them in the Crit section. Otherwise for a student portfolio you are looking really good. I had a buddy get hired on at Bioware and all he had was a fancy sketchbook. Granted that was over 10 years ago but the point is I think you are on track for your art career.

Thank you. I'm glad to hear that I'm on the right track. I'm still pretty new to networking so I'm not exactly sure who to talk to to get my name the most exposure and possibly a job out there. If you know anybody who's looking for concept design/illustration work please let me know!

I'd say to get contacts you should Network with your fellow students and Profs. The contacts that you make in school are super important moving out into the real world. It's not what you know but who you know. Otherwise, reach out and touch people. Talk to other Pros and just be a nice guy and make friends. There is no quick and dirty way as far as I know. One thing you could do is get in at a game developer and work your way up from the bottom. Once you are in the industry, I hear that it is much easier to move up and around. I've talked to people who started out as Q&A down at EA and now are in development.

Hey Nick and congrats to your portfolio pieces! I really like how I am able to recreate your thoughts of design in the concepts and that is actually what my professors want to see in our work (I study virtual design in germany which is a lot 3d stuff etc.). I can "follow" everything you put up here so I think you're on the right track with the concept stuff.

What actually pushes your "quality" would be a bit more detailed rendering maybe, I think that is what clients want to see. But I'm no professional at all, so maybe only I guess so.

Thanks man! I understand wanting to see more rendered pieces, believe me i do too haha.
But my instructors pushed me to be able to loose concepts.
Many students get too caught up in rendering something pretty, but are either too slow, or are rendering something that lacks basic principles.

I do believe one of my next big steps will be in displaying something that is fully rendered to professional industry standards.